


Cassie vs. Cassie

by FunnyWings



Series: Psych/Supernatural Crossover Series [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Psychic!dean, based off of episode Psy v. Psy, cop!Charlie, cop!cas, except not really, psych au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 20:45:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8260030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunnyWings/pseuds/FunnyWings
Summary: Dean has to deal with a new "psychic" and ex, Cassie Robinson, on his latest case when the FBI comes to Santa Barbara to catch a forger. Will she reveal that he's not as supernaturally inclined as he claims to be? Will Cas fall for handsome FBI Agent Henrikson? Will the author ever actually go through with the Destiel, or will there just be another cliffhanger?Read on to find out!I highly suggest you read previous installments before reading this one. Part five of the Psych/Supernatural Crossover series.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Some very minor tragedies listed here. For one thing, the author is currently regretting not naming the previous installment "There's Nothing Sexy About Murder". For another, Psych is no longer on Netflix. I am generally discontent about these two things.
> 
> That out of the way, hope you enjoy the latest installment and forgive the fact it took so long to write.

On the third grade field trip to the zoo, Dean Winchester had had one goal: convince Tracy Miller to be his girlfriend. In order to accomplish this goal he had set up a fool proof plan that had gone through the way too long and detailed approval process of his six year old brother. At least mostly. The five step plan was as follows.

Step number one: Make sure he sat next to her on the school bus. Tracy’s best friend Cat had to be paid off in candy to go sit with one of her other friends, but it was completely worth it because Dean got to spend the entire hour long bus ride talking with Tracy uninterrupted. Just as he thought, they had a ton in common, and talked the whole time without pause. He’d already picked out from watching her that she liked dinosaurs just like he did.

Step number two: Ask Tracy to spend the day walking around with him at the zoo. This step was more tricky, since technically they were assigned to different chaperones, but Dean knew for a fact that the chaperones had trouble keeping track of all the kids they’d been assigned to, so as long as they both showed up to roll call at the beginning and end of the day they would probably be fine.

Step number three: Take Tracy to the penguin exhibit. Penguins were Tracy’s favorite animals, and Dean knew if they went there straight away it wouldn’t be as crowded as it was later. Just as he thought, she was delighted to get to press her face up against the glass and watch the penguins swim by.

Step number four: Try holding hands. He was eight. This was pretty much the entire scope of romantic gestures for his age group.

Step number five: Ask Tracy to be his girlfriend.

The last part kind of flopped when they got into a lot of trouble for wandering away from their groups. Tracy got grounded for a week when she got home, and wouldn’t talk to Dean for months. When he complained to Sam about it, his little brother had just shrugged and said that he had pointed out that the adults finding out about the plan might be a problem.

Dean had just decided that he hadn’t planned well enough and would do better next time.

*****************

“That is a terrible fucking plan.”

Sam had not learned to be supportive in all his years by Dean’s side. He had though learned to just go along with the crazy.

“Why? This is a great plan. Don’t knock my plan.”

“Why do you even need to trick Cas into dating you? Just ask him on a date, like an adult. I mean, according to Jo he spends as many nights over at your place as he does at home, I think it’s safe to say he’s into you.”

“That’s just sex Sam. No, I think I might actually want a real relationship. Like with all the bells and whistles.”

“Well…”

“Well, what?”

“Look, Dean… I know you don’t mean to, I really do… but you kind of have a habit of leading people on. You move really fast and then you just kind of falter out and give up on relationships. Cas has feelings. I mean, I think he has feelings. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Not the point. What I’m trying to say is we have to work with him every day. And he’s just getting over his divorce. I don’t think you should go for this if you’re not absolutely sure.”

“What makes you think I’m not absolutely sure?” asked Dean. “Is it so hard to believe I might actually be interested in the slightest bit of commitment?”

“Kinda.”

“You know, you kind of suck as a sounding board sometimes.”

Sam’s phone buzzed in his hands and he looked up.

“If it’s any consolation, Eileen thinks you should go for it.”

“Tell Eileen she’s a better person than you.”

“Yeah, I’m not doing that,” said Sam texting his girlfriend back. He was probably being all sentimental and weird. It was what he did best. Luckily, Eileen seemed to be into it.

“You know who else likes Cas? Dad. They went fishing together. Dad had a great time.”

Sam furrowed his eyebrow. For one thing, he didn’t understand why Cas had gone fishing with their dad or how that had even been a possibility though he suspected somehow Dean had engineered it. It was just odd that Dean gave any weight to their dad’s approval, something he had tired to ignore his entire adult life.

“You actively go against dad’s opinions and wishes. Why would that matter?”

Dean shrugged and let it drop, but for the first time since the conversation had started Sam was taking it seriously. He’d thought this was just another one of Dean’s games, but it was starting to sound more and more like…

“You actually really like him, don’t you?” he asked. “You like like him.”

“Okay, cool it there Sammy. We’re not in the fifth grade anymore. We don’t say like like.”

“Sorry this is just all very surprising to me.”

“It’s not that big a deal. I just want to be not friends with Cas.”

“Oh, this is going to go great, I can already tell,” Sam muttered with a deep sigh. “You want my advice?”

“No.”

“Don’t overthink it.”

“I did say no, Sam. Let me say it in Spanish. No. No adviso.”

“Advice in Spanish is consejos.”

“This is why nobody likes you.”

Sam smirked for a moment at Dean’s discomfort before Dean rolled his eyes and started to walk out.

“It’s still a bad plan.”

“We have a case, asshat.

******************

Castiel and Charlie were both waiting in Chief Mills office. Charlie could tell that Cas was grumpy because he hadn’t spoken a word to Chief Mills her entire speech about how the FBI would be working with them for this particular case. She had outlined their general protocol and how it was going to work with the Winchesters helping and Cas hadn’t asked a single question. That told Charlie he was trying very hard not to say something sarcastic.

Dean and Sam walked in a few moments later and Jody crossed her arms and looked at them expectantly. Dean hurried through an apology for being late and Jody rolled her eyes and started repeating herself while Dean nudged Cas and handed him a cup of coffee. Cas frowned down at it and then thanked Dean, who made a big deal about saying it was nothing.

Charlie happened to know it was the first step of Dean’s big plan to get Cas to go on a real date with him. She gave him a thumb’s up when Cas wasn’t looking, and caught a slight grin from Dean along with a an eye roll from Sam. It was clear someone didn’t approve of the plan. Charlie had thought it was a pretty good plan herself.

As Dean and Sam sat down and Jody ran through her speech again, which Dean listened to distractedly as he was obviously trying to gauge Cas’ reaction to getting him coffee and whether or not he was marginally less pissed off now. Sam on the other hand paid strict attention and nodded along to the different protocol Jody brought up.

Jody paused in the middle of her speech and then looked behind them. The door opened and Charlie turned around like everyone else. One FBI agent walked in, and she and Cas stood to shake his hand. Charlie didn’t miss the subtle way the agent’s eyes trailed down Cas before he professionally introduced himself as Agent Victor Henrikson. By the annoyed look on Dean’s face she would guess he hadn’t missed it either.

Cas, of course was oblivious. Or rather he was posturing, because he didn’t like working with the FBI for cases. The fact that he’d resigned himself to having a psychic help on every case was bad enough for him, but now Jody was making him work with more people? Charlie knew that his ego was taking a hit. Not that he would ever admit that was the reason why he so hated working with anyone who wasn’t his partner.

Dean was the next to introduce himself after Castiel had begrudgingly acknowledged Henrikson’s presence. Charlie knew from the fake smile that stretched across Dean’s face that he was going to act like an ass.

“Dean Winchester,” he said to Henrikson, shaking his hand for a moment before dropping it. “Official psychic detective of the SBPD. This here is my partner, Salamander “Sally” West. I don’t know if you’ve heard of us. We’ve helped solve—how many cases Sally?”

“It’s Sam,” Sam said pointedly, with a huff.

“Yeah, thirty cases,” Dean said. “So no need to worry about this case. We’ll have it wrapped up in a jiffy.”

“Good to meet you both,” Victor said with a barely noticeable roll of his eyes at Dean’s little speech. Charlie was surprised at his lack of challenge to Dean plainly stating he was psychic. She’d expected a bit of push back. “My personal assistant Nancy is outside. She writes down everything anyone says in my immediate vicinity,” he said, as though that were normal. Nancy waved a little when Dean and Sam looked out the window. Henrikson continues speaking. “My partner should be here soon. She’ll be working with you two on the,” he paused for a second, searching for words. “paranormal side of the case.”

“What?” said Dean.

Henrikson seemed a little pleased with himself to have caught Dean off guard.

“The FBI actually is aware of your successes here, and we’ve looked into hiring our own psychics, like my partner. And here she is,” said Victor. Charlie turned toward the door and watched as a frankly stunning black woman came through the door. She smiled at them all, though it seemed slightly strained toward the end. “I’d like everyone to meet Cassandra Robinson.”

*********************

Dean froze when she walked in. It absolutely couldn’t be. Out of everyone in the entire world that had to walk through those doors. But of course it was.

“Alright,” said Jody. “What we have on our hands here is a forger. We’ve already found evidence of his work so time is of the essence in this case. He spent forged currency at a jewelry shop. The profile that Henrikson’s been building over the past years indicates that our suspect is male, so chances are he may have either an accomplice. Considering his habit of uprooting quickly and then moving on to his next con, we doubt that he’s had time to build any kind of lasting relationship unless this person is moving with them.”

Dean barely heard her. He was staring at Cassie practically open-mouthed while she ignored him and paid attention to the chief. He vaguely heard her go on to say they were going to investigate the jewelry store before he finally found his voice again.

“Cassie, can I talk to you for a second?” he blurted out, interrupting the chief’s closing remarks. He caught her glare in his peripherals. It only lasted a second.

“What do you want?” asked Castiel, sounding annoyed per usual.

“I really don’t think we need to-“ Cassie said, breaking off when she heard Cas speaking at the same time as her. For one shining moment, it was silent enough that you could hear a pin drop. Then Sam started laughing.

“Please shut up,” Dean said, which only prompted Sam to laugh harder. Jody stared at him in confusion, but Dean could tell by the wide eyed look that Charlie was giving Cassie that she had figured it out. He needed to control this situation fast. “Not you Novak. Cassie, meet me outside.”

Dean walked hurriedly to a quieter corner of the police station and then turned around to face Cassie, who had her arms crossed and was looking at him questioningly.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he hissed. “And what the fuck are you doing, pretending to be a psychic? With the FBI?”

“I could ask you the same questions,” Cassie replied coolly. “Besides, you’re the one that gave me the idea. I saw your name in the newspapers a couple of times and thought I could get in on the gig.”

“You wanted to be a reporter.”

“I was a reporter. Turns out if you write about the wrong people you don’t get to do much writing anymore,” said Cassie. Dean caught the slight anger in the tightening of her fists at that, but then she relaxed slightly. “Good for me I knew a few tricks you’d taught me. When I saw that the FBI was hiring, I went for it. It worked.”

Cassie was the only person besides Sam that Dean had ever told about his training with his father, along with his eidetic memory. He knew that made her uniquely dangerous. One of the key factors to him not being caught in a lie is that no one at the SBPD understood the way his mind worked. Cassie did. Once they knew, they could properly test if he were truly psychic, and as both Dean and Cassie knew well, psychics didn’t actually exist.

“So what is this?” Dean asked. “I don’t tell on you, you don’t tell on me?”

“No, this is me solving a case and you staying the hell out of the way,” said Cassie. Dean was surprised to realize just how close the two of them had drifted together during their conversation and it was a struggle not to remember how often their little fights had led to making up and making out. He had a feeling Cassie was doing it on purpose. “because you may have given me the idea to do this, but that doesn’t mean I approve. This isn’t a game, and just from reading the interviews you’ve given I can tell you still haven’t grown up.”

“Wow, okay,” Dean muttered. “Thanks for that. Real self esteem booster that was. Funny how I’m the one that needs to grow up when you were the one that dumped me for being a freak? Or do you not remember that?”

Cassie didn't answer, just waved her hand dismissively.

“Convenient,” Dean commented as she walked away from him. He kept his eyes from wandering down with difficulty. He scraped a hand across his face when he realized he had actually just thought that when Donna walked up to him.

“You doing okay, there, Deano?” she asked kindly. “You seem a little stressed.”

“I’m fine,” Dean said with a quick reassuring nod of his head. He tried to clear his head from how thrown off he was from seeing Cassie for the first time in so many years. “How are you doing Donna?”

“Oh, I’m doing real good. Alfie and I are starting to investigate some squatters in the outskirts of town. We haven’t caught ‘em yet, but we’re working on it,” said Donna cheerfully. “It’ll be a shame to lose him for a few weeks when his little one comes. He’s so excited to see his little girl.”

Dean remembered that he had told Alfie that his kid was going to be a girl. He really hoped that that turned out to be true, because otherwise he might have some explaining to do.

“Yeah,” said Dean with a smile at the thought of Alfie with a kid. “He’s not going to be able to talk about anything else for a while, is he?”

“Nah, but it’s alright. He’s a sweet kid,” said Donna. Her smile faltered a little after she waved to her partner who had seen her talking to Dean. “It’s nice to hear about being settled down happily, y’know? Puts things into perspective.”

“You know Doug is going to die alone and miserable. I have that on good authority from the spirit world,” said Dean. Donna shoved him playfully.

“Oh, I don’t want that,” she said, her smile back in place. She looked over his shoulder and Dean followed her gaze to see Sam waiting for him so they could go to the jewelry store. “Go off on your big FBI case. Show those agents how it’s done in Santa Barbara.”

“Good luck with your squatters,” said Dean in response before heading off with Sam.

***************

It started to go wrong from the get go.

Sam had some very pressing questions about why exactly Cassie Robinson was also impersonating a psychic, but the humor of the situation had briefly prevented him from asking about it, or noticing just how distressed Dean was to see her. He didn’t know how it had never occurred to him that Dean’s teasing nickname for Castiel had been the same as his first and only serious girlfriend.

Sam started to think that maybe he should have seen the whole “Dean sleeping with Cas” thing coming now.

Not the point. The point was that Cassie mopped the floor with Dean. As soon as they got to the crime scene, she started detailing what happened and gave details that led to several promising new leads. Dean couldn’t get a word in edgewise, and after a while he stopped trying. Instead he nodded to Sam and the two of them headed off to interview one of the owner’s of the jewelry store.

“Hey… Chris,” said Dean, eyes flitting down to check out his name tag. “You wouldn’t happen to have video of the incident?”

Chris stared at him.

“Now, how did you know my name was Chris?” he said, suspiciously. Sam silently willed Dean not to try to pass that off as a psychic premonition.

“Hey relax there buddy. I’m actually a psychic,” said Dean. The man relaxed.

“Oh. Yeah, the other psychic already looked it over there.”

“She does things differently than I do,” said Dean quickly. “Psychics work on different frequencies. We pick up different stuff.”

“Like radios.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Sam decided that if he ever got into the business of creating jewelry, he would not be selling to this store. He and Dean followed Chris into a backroom with a small monitor that showed four perspectives of the shop. Chris wound it back to the time of the robbery. Dean looks through the footage and determines all of Cassie’s “predictions” were correct. The perp was male, white, late twenties, and had covered his face with a ski mask. There wasn’t much to go on to impress his colleagues.

“Thanks for that,” said Dean shaking Chris’ hand briefly. Sam noticed that his eyes had focused in on some item in a clear storage bin on Chris’ desk. Dean wiped his hand down the front of his shirt and took a step back. “And uh, you really shouldn’t, uh, pee in your office dude? Just for future reference.”

That was when Sam caught sight of the series of bottles filled with suspicious yellow liquid that his brother had obviously noticed a few seconds earlier.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” said Chris before sitting back in his chair and going back to staring at the screens. Sam decided that he did not want to be in that room any longer, and retreated as quickly as he could.

“So…”

“Yeah, he’s in on whatever happened,” said Dean.

Sam stared at him.

“How did you get that?”

“The dude pees at his desk. He’s not taking his eyes off of those screens. Someone bribed him. Probably with forged money. So all we need to do is tell Novak and Charlie-“

Dean paused when he saw that the aforementioned people were heading towards him.

“Hey guys, we’ve got a lead-“

“One sec, Dean,” said Charlie with a smile as she and her partner pushed past the two Winchesters and into the security room. “Chris Jefferson, you’re under arrest for assisting in the burglary. You have the right to remain silent-“

Charlie went on, but Sam tuned her out and saw that Cassie was watching them with a raised eyebrow. Dean was looking back at her with narrowed eyes.

“Oh, it is on,” he muttered darkly.

“Don’t let her get to you, Dean,” Sam tried. Dean waved him off and walked off to talk to Cassie.

**************

“Where the hell do you get off?” Dean said quietly, but furiously. “You’re trying to make me look bad. And we both know you aren’t the genuine thing either, sweetheart, so what exactly are you trying to do here? Because it is not cute.”

“I’m not trying to make you look bad. You’re doing that by yourself,” said Cassie critically. “Do you usually just amble through cases like this? Take your sweet time while more people are hurt or swindled? We need to catch this guy. Solving the case faster than you doesn’t make me the bad guy.”

“You timed it out Cassie. You saw me go in, and you sent Cas and Charlie after the guy I interviewed right when I was about to talk to them. That saved, what, maybe seven seconds? I’m not stupid.”

“No. You’re actually pretty smart. Unfortunately all of that’s hidden under about fifty levels of defense mechanisms. Which means lost time on this case. I’m going to repeat what I said earlier. Either step up or back off. I need to find this guy, and either you’re going to help or you’re going to take a couple of sick days, got it?”

“Wait,” said Dean, catching on one of her phrases. “You need to find this guy?”

“Yeah, it’s my job.”

Dean could see that Cassie realized she’d miscalculated. He’d caught a tenuous thread of connection between her and the forger they were looking for, though he didn’t yet know what exactly it meant.

“Mine too.”

“Good,” said Cassie, crossing her arms defensively while still managing to project an air of nonchalance. Dean picked up on her foot tapping for a moment before she stopped herself. Something was wrong here, and he wasn’t quite sure what it was. Cassie obviously remembered quite a bit of what he had told her about her tells when they were in relationship. After he’d let her know how he always knew when she was upset or what she had done that day, she’d insisted he teach her how to lessen how much information he could pick up from her, because she needed a modicum of privacy from him. Dean had agreed. He obviously hadn’t expected these skills to be used against him ten years later.

“I know you’re hiding something.”

“And I know you’d be pretty fucking disappointed if I were to out the fact that you’re not psychic to all of your friends at the police station. They seem to really like you. Ever wonder what would happen if they found out you’d been lying to them for months?” said Cassie. “Now, I don’t really want to hurt you like that, but don’t think I’ll hesitate if you threaten me, Dean Winchester.”

“Well, if you have something to do with this, do you really think they’re going to believe you?” said Dean. Unfortunately, he was aware that she had the upper hand and knew it too. Unless he had definitive proof that something was wrong and what exactly was wrong… Despite the history between them, Dean couldn’t see Cassie ever assisting a criminal. She’d always planned to be the kind of hard hitting reporter that was beyond corruption.

“Try me,” she said. She nodded toward Henrikson a moment later and walked past Dean without a backwards glance. Dean glowered after her until Charlie came up to him.

“Hey, dude,” she said. “So what’s the deal with you and Cassie lite.”

“Please don’t call her that.”

“Sam told me that you two used to date.”

“Yeah, until she dumped me. Do you want me to start dragging your recent love life into this conversation, Charlie? Because I will.”

Charlie grimaced and shook her head.

“No, I was just thinking… don’t sleep with her.”

“What?” asked Dean incredulously. Charlie shrank back a bit.

“Just, you guys seem really intense? And I know you like Cas, but you two aren’t actually dating, and things happen between exes, sometimes. I’m just pointing out from an objective third party point of view that sleeping with Robinson is not going to look good if you want to get serious with Cas.”

“I know. I’m not an idiot. And I’m not going to sleep with her,” Dean huffed annoyed. “Trust me that is the last thing I want.”

Maybe that was an exaggeration, but not much. Dean could still remember just how bad it had hurt when she’d fucked him over. He didn’t really need a repeat performance on that one.

*****************

Castiel was waiting impatiently for Charlie to join him in the car. He glanced at the security guard in the back every once in a while, but he seemed to have given up trying to get out of the handcuffs and was just sitting quietly. Cas startled at a knock on his window and looked up to see Henrikson was looking down at him. Castiel rolled down the window.

“What?”

“Cassie and I are getting a warrant to search Jefferson’s home. We suspect that the money he was paid off with will be forged and we might be able to determine the location of the operation by particulates. Our teams are working together on the crime scene, and any information we receive will be shared with you and yours as soon as feasible.”

Castiel nodded seriously and tried to find something he could conceivably complain about within Henrikson’s speech. Finding it sufficient, he managed a proper response.

“As long as you keep us updated,” he said hesitantly. He had good reason to be suspicious of FBI types. Frequently they tried to box him out of cases he was much more knowledgeable about than them. In this case, he supposed Henrikson had a better understanding of the criminal, but he didn’t know Santa Barbara as well as Castiel did, and he didn’t want his opinions discounted before he had even shared them. Then again, the agent had gone out of his way to assure Castiel that they would keep him and Charlie involved.

“Shouldn’t be a problem. And if you have any concerns, feel free to call me,” said Henrikson, handing Castiel a card with his number on it. Castiel squinted at it, unsure why he would need Henrikson’s number when he could simply relay any information or requests for information through Chief Mills. He placed it in the cupholder of his car anyway and watched as Henrikson went off to to speak with Nancy as he waited for Cassie to reappear, which she did shortly. Charlie wasn’t far behind her, and as soon as Castiel started the car, Chris’ protests at being arrested doubled. Castiel mostly ignored him, only keeping an ear out for if he could do any genuine harm to himself at which point he would intervene.

“Hey, Cas,” said Charlie, sitting herself in the passenger seat. “Back to the station!”

Cas pulled out of the parking lot of the jewelry store and was unsurprised to see the Winchester’s vehicle pulling out shortly behind them. Likely they would follow them back to the station so they could interrogate the subject in a manner that was somehow “psychic”.

“The fact that we’re expected to believe that two people with supernatural abilities are working on this case and go along with their conclusions is making me reconsider my involvement in law enforcement,” Castiel said bitterly. Charlie snorted.

“You really still don’t believe that Dean’s psychic? Even a little bit?”

“Psychics don’t exist.”

“Your internal landscape must be a mess,” Charlie muttered. “How do you reconcile the idea that one of our good friends, who you are sleeping with in case you didn’t remember, is constantly lying to us? Besides, Dean has solved a crap ton of cases with information that I honestly don’t see how he could know.”

“I’m not sure good friend is the term I would use.”

“You’ve both saved each other’s lives a couple of times. I don’t think you can go through that and not be friends, at least a little bit.”

Castiel decided not to comment on that. Of course there were complications and feelings mixed up with all of this, but that wasn’t the point. He wasn’t suggesting getting rid of Dean—anymore, in any case—he was simply stating that the current state of affairs was ridiculous.

“It doesn’t matter what I feel about the man. What matters is that more people might claim to do the same thing he does and someone less skilled at pretending than Dean can be will hurt a lot of people. And perhaps Robinson will be one of them.”

Charlie was obviously not so inclined to disbelieve.

“I honestly think they’re both psychic. Besides, did you see Cassie showing Dean up today? I think she knows what she’s talking about. I felt a little bad for Dean though. It sucks to see your ex, anyway, but to have her come to your job and do it better than you can? That’s gotta sting.”

“I’m sure Dean can handle it.”

“I guess,” said Charlie hesitantly. She turned around to check on Chris Jefferson for a moment and when she turned back to face front she noticed the card in the cup holder. She lifted it up and read it. “Victor Henrikson, FBI. Why do you have this?”

“Henrikson gave it to me. He seems very committed to keeping the SBPD involved in the case. It’s a refreshing change, honestly.”

Castiel had the feeling he was missing something by the way Charlie stared at him incredulously.

“You know that he knows we can just call him through Jody, right?” she said carefully. Castiel nodded.

“Yes. I wasn’t exactly sure why he felt it necessary to give me his card, though I am hopeful it means that he actually takes us seriously and won’t exclude us from the case.”

Charlie put the card back in the cupholder.

“Or it means he thinks you’re attractive and he’s trying to subtly hit on you.”

Charlie laughed at the panicked look that drew from Cas. It would never stop surprising her just how nervous romantic attention from anyone he didn’t have a firm sense of seemed to rattle him. He went on for a while how that couldn’t be the case and he was sure that Charlie was just projecting her tendency to find dates while on the job onto him. Charlie rolled her eyes at this and let Cas talk himself out of the idea. His rambling got them back to the station, at which point Charlie decided to change the topic.

“So, your next meeting with Naomi is on Saturday, right?” she asked, knowing that this topic would be sufficient to distract Cas from spiraling about the possibility that someone was hitting on him. Cas gladly latched onto the distraction.

“Unfortunately,” he muttered. “I do not like her. I’m quite certain she does not have my best interests at heart.”

“I would agree with you, but you’re also kind of paranoid, so I’m not entirely sure where I stand,” said Charlie.

“I’m not paranoid.”

“Last week you told me you were pretty sure your next door neighbor was timing when he invited his girlfriend over to interrupt your sleep schedule.”

“He is. I specifically left a note asking him to limit noises at certain times, and those are the times when he is especially loud. Luckily he’s stopped since Jo spoke with him.”

“You mean cussed him out.”

“Essentially. I was blessed with a sister skilled in the arts of persuasion.”

“You only think Jo is skilled because your method of persuasion is to stare at people menacingly until they do what you want.”

Castiel didn’t bother to deny this, probably because he was busy trying to safely get Chris Jefferson to cooperate with him. He had a lot of weight on Cas, and was not making it easy on him. Cas tried to patiently explain to him several times that they were going to ask him questions and it would be much easier if he answered honestly, but Chris wasn’t having any of it. Charlie nudged Castiel out of the way and started leading Chris off. He didn’t fight as hard to Castiel’s disbelief. Charlie got him into the interrogation room and sat him down with minor grumbling.

“Perhaps you’re the one with supernatural abilities,” Castiel said. “Why didn’t he kick you?”

“I just kind of assume people are a little bit sexist most of the time,” said Charlie, with a shrug. “He didn’t want to hit me. To him I’m a woman first, cop second.”

Castiel’s confused expression cleared.

“Understood. Would you think it would be better if you led the interrogation as well?”

“Probably. Or Cassie.”

“If we must.”

“Cheer up, grumpy,” said Charlie reaching up with her hand to pat him on the head. Castiel stared down at her nonplussed. He let a small smile at his partner’s silliness cross his face before Victor, Cassie, and the Winchesters all came through the hallway and he sobered once again.

***************

Interrogating the suspect got them nowhere at first. Cassie got the closest to getting him to speak about the person that had stolen from the jewelry store, but even she couldn’t manage to convince him that they needed to know the information. Dean watched her get more and more frustrated as the interview had gone on and noted it to himself. While he was doing this, he decided to make nice with Nancy, who had been following Henrikson around and taking notes on everything he said.

“Hi Nancy,” he said with a friendly wave as she was taking notes on the interrogation. She threw him a quick smile before she got back to furiously typing. Dean waited until Cassie gave up and left to speak with Victor and then waited a little longer before attempting to engage her again.

“So Nancy, new puppy? That must be hard with a job like this.”

“My boyfriend takes care of… how did you know? Oh, sorry. I forget about the psychic thing,” she said.

Dean had already determined several things about Nancy. For one, she had a chastity ring and was probably in a long term relationship, so flirting with her to get information was off the table. Two, she was probably pretty loyal to Henrikson considering how seriously she took her job. Three, she was suspicious of him and probably didn’t buy much into psychics.

The only logical method of going forward was to win her sympathy.

“Makes sense. It’s hard working with Cassie after everything that happened.”

“Everything that happened?” Nancy asked, frowning slightly. Dean nodded seriously and settled in the chair next to her.

“When we were young, we were so in love,” Dean said dreamily. He let his expression sour and he honestly didn’t have to do that much acting for that one. “But she started asking me about sex and I’m a firm believer that an act so intimate should be reserved for marriage, you know? It’s not exactly a popular opinion to have in this day and age.”

Nancy’s eyes widened and she nodded slightly.

“No, I get it,” she said showing off the ring that Dean had already carefully noted. “My boyfriend and I have a lot of talks about it. It’s a hard choice. Not many people are that strong.”

If God existed, Dean was probably going to hell for tricking Nancy into thinking he was some kind of virtuous hero in his and Cassie’s sad little relationship drama. Fortunately, Dean was pretty sure he was in the clear, and he figured that as long as Nancy never found out, it wouldn’t hurt her.

“So I’ve been falling behind in this case, because I think I still have feelings for her. Every time I try to get into contact with the spirit world, I get distracted,” Dean confessed as sincerely as he could manage. Nancy believed every word he said, he could tell. “Hey, I know that you’ve been keeping copies of the notes. Could you send some to me? Please, it would mean the world.”

“Of course. And good luck,” said Nancy with a friendly smile. Dean smiled back and walked off to join Sam who was drawing up plans of attack for when Dean interviewed Chris.

“I’m a bad person.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Sam muttered. He looked up to see Dean attempting to read over his shoulder. “Did you convince her to share the transcripts.”

“Yep. Hook, line, and sinker,” said Dean.

“Uh huh,” said Sam. “The truth is not your friend, huh?”

“Nobody asked for your lessons on morality,” said Dean. “I think I’m just going to wing it. Wish me luck.”

Sam obviously didn’t like that idea because he followed Dean into the interrogation room. Jefferson stared at them both suspiciously.

“I’m not talking to the cops,” he said firmly. “You’ll twist my words.”

“Not cops,” Dean reassured him. “I’m a psychic, so you don’t need to say anything. I’m going to divine the answers by reading your mind.”

That agitated him pretty severely.

“You can’t do that. That’s not legal! I have rights.”

Sam stared at the man incredulously. Dean made sure Chris’ focus stayed on him.

“I don’t have to look inside your head as long as you answer my questions. Do we have ourselves a deal?” he said, reaching out a hand for Chris to shake. He did so warily. “Alright, let’s start simple. Did you take money not to look at the cameras?”

“It didn’t happen like that,” Chris muttered. Dean put his hand to his head and Chris started talking faster to avoid being mind read. “Look, Michelle sold it to him, okay? He offered to buy it for twice what we were offering, as long as it was off book. We replaced the money, but Harriet noticed that the inventory didn’t match up and she reported it stolen. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Can you tell me where your half of the money is? Or what the man looked like?”

“White. Light hair. Average height. Honestly, kind of forgettable. And he was with a girl,” said Chris as though he were remembering.

“Do you remember what the girl looked—“

Cassie walked through the door just as Dean was asking this question and sat down next to him. Chris shut down, glaring at her. Dean cursed his luck.

“Where’s the money Chris?” she said. “Listen, I will upend everything in your and Michelle’s life until we find out where this money is. You can’t use it anyway. It’s forged. But if you cooperate with us, we’ll be willing to cut you a deal and leave Michelle out of this. Do you understand?”

Chris looked for a moment like he didn’t want to talk but nodded with a defeated glance toward Dean.

“I keep my savings in the attic. It’s in an envelope marked J Money,” he said.

Dean had a feeling that Henrikson was already sending someone to retrieve it. They would probably be able to trace the particulates from there. As far as he was concerned his work was done for the day, so he left Cassie to sort the details out with Chris. As far as he was concerned he’d re-established himself as a serious contender in this case, and the respectful nod Henrikson gave him confirmed that for him.

Feeling a little more confident, on his way out he stopped by Cas to enact step two of his plan to get Cas to date him.

“So Novak,” he said. “You up for a drink at Tommy’s later? I haven’t seen Benny in ages.”

Charlie raised her eyebrows at him suggestively while Castiel was obviously trying to puzzle out his behavior.

“I’m busy tonight. I can’t do anything,” Castiel lowered his voice at the last part worriedly, glancing around.

“Just drinks, Cas,” Dean pushed. Charlie broke in to add to the awkwardness.

“Actually, during your interrogation—good job with that one by the way, Dean—Victor asked Cas here if he wanted to have dinner and talk over the case.”

Charlie inflected it in a way that let Dean know she had probably encouraged Cas to say yes and this was her subtly punishing him for not getting on his plan better and letting himself be distracted by Cassie. He mouthed ‘pure evil’ at her when Cas wasn’t looking.

“So you’re blowing me off to go on a date,” said Dean, and he could actually hear the moment when his voice was no longer teasing and had gone indignant. Castiel glared at him.

“First of all, it isn’t a date. Second of all, even if it were a date it wouldn’t be any of your business, Dean.”

“Yeah, okay. Have fun on your terrible date,” muttered Dean, knowing that Sam was probably laughing at him right now, and not looking at either Charlie or his brother as he walked out of the police station. Sam followed him, and Dean knew he was doing his best to school his expression.

“I hate you,” said Dean, starting the car and relaxing at the steady sound of its motor.

“Look, Dean,” said Sam. “Maybe you should go the direct route here. Just lay out your feelings on the table and Novak will either say that’s cool, or he’ll say that he’s not into you like that. I think you’re making it really hard on yourself by having this weird secret plan.”

“The plan will work,” Dean insisted. Sam shut his mouth for a moment and then tried to think of someway to get Dean to come around. He figured the best way was to just say what he was thinking.

“You’re on step two and it’s already a disaster. Besides, you don’t need a plan. What you need to be is emotionally vulnerable—“

“Do me a favor and just shut up.”

Sam gave up. Dean would do what he wanted, and that was that. If he wanted to play games and ruin his shot with Cas, that was his prerogative.

*****************

Cas knew that Victor had asked him to dinner to feel out whether or not he would be interested in sex. After Charlie had made the comment that Victor might be attracted to him, Castiel had independently confirmed it by observing his behavior.

Walking out of the changing room wearing only pants and suspenders because he had “forgotten” his shirt and asking Castiel if he had seen it was kind of a tip off as well.

Though Castiel knew he was being careful in case Castiel didn’t reciprocate interest. And for that reason, it wasn’t a date. It wasn’t.

Still, he couldn’t help but compare what his night would be like if he had told Victor he had plans and gone to have a drink with Dean. Likely it would have ended up with him back at Dean’s apartment, and then slinking off in the morning and trying to sneak back in to his own place without Jo waking up and making passive aggressive comments about how Dean wasn’t good for him.

But before then it might be pleasant. Dean’s lack of seriousness was at times frustrating, though it could also be entertaining when nobody’s lives were at stake.

Victor on the other hand was engaging because he was very similar to Castiel. Both were essentially married to their jobs, and Victor admitted to several messy breakups a while into dinner. Cas had perhaps unfairly stressed the gender of his exes, which led to Victor changing his approach to the dinner and focusing more on business, which had Castiel breathing a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that Victor had ever said anything disrespectful, it just felt wrong somehow, to encourage him. Theoretically, sleeping with him would be a good move to keep Dean from thinking that whatever relationship they had should go further, but that thought had just further repulsed him.

So dinner had ended cordially and Castiel had a good idea now which locations they would be searching in the morning for the forger. He knew, vaguely, that he should go back to his apartment. Jo had texted him asking if he was going to be back. He took out his phone and stared at it, contemplating for a moment before telling her that he was going to be out that night. She responded by asking if that meant he was going home with the cop or if he was staying the night at Dean Winchester’s house again. Castiel didn’t answer and knew that that was answer enough.

Dean looked surprised to see him when he showed up at his door.

“Is the offer still valid?” Castiel said, unable to do anything but stare at his feet.

“What?”

“Can I have something to drink?”

“Yeah,” Dean said, scrambling to let him in. “It’s kind of late to head out to a bar, but if you wanted to stay here… I’ve got those terrible non-alcoholic beers you like.”

“That sounds fine,” said Castiel sitting down at the sofa and looking through the papers that were laid on top of it. He realized they were Nancy’s notes and started to look through Dean’s annotations. He stopped when Dean got back with the beer.

“So,” Dean said sitting down next to him. It wasn’t unfamiliar for Cas to come over late, though usually they got right to other things. Dean didn’t seem to want to do that right this instant though. “Have you ever seen an episode of Law and Order?”

“No.”

“Well, you’re in luck because I managed to hack into Sam’s Netflix account after he changed the password and he still hasn’t noticed,” said Dean with a smile. He started setting up the episode and Castiel waited for the inevitable snarky questions he was going to ask about Victor. He didn’t need to wait long.

“So, your date didn’t go so well, huh?”

“It wasn’t a date. I’m not interested in doing that right now, and I wish you would stop trying to insinuate you know whether or not I’m interested in anyone. I know that arrangements like ours can get complicated, and if it’s too much for you—“

“Cas, I’m just poking fun at you,” said Dean, though he sounded put out. Castiel didn’t respond and they watched the episode with a kind of tension between them that was not the sexual kind. It faded, slowly but surely as Castiel let himself be taken in by the plot of the show in front of him. He was surprised when he glanced to the side and saw Dean looking at him.

“What?”

“It’s nice to see you enjoying yourself is all,” Dean muttered, looking away. “You don’t do that very often.”

“I’m not sure enjoy would be the correct term. Catharsis might be the better word. To see aspects of one’s life played out on screen and resolved. There’s a kind of peace in it,” Castiel said thoughtfully. Dean suddenly wished he hadn’t picked a cop show. Might hit a little close to home. “Whatever mistakes they make, one way or another they will be resolved. Real life isn’t that simple.”

“Well, then, I guess it’s nice to watch you cathart,” said Dean. Castiel’s mouth twitched a moment before he went back to studying the screen.

“Misusing the English language isn’t a laughing matter, Dean,” he said seriously. “I’m not one to argue for the stagnation of language, but there is certainly not a need to change a perfectly good noun into an verb for the sake of—“

“You’re missing the show, sweetheart,” said Dean cutting him off. Cas glowered for a moment before he refocused on the television. It was about this time that Dean thought he should put part three of his plan into action. When Cas started playing the next episode, Dean stopped paying attention entirely and instead did his best to get Cas’ attention without actually saying anything to him. Cas was fairly skilled at this by this point, but when Dean got to the point where he had started sucking marks into Cas’ neck he’d obviously decided he was done ignoring him, if the fact that he shoved Dean back and crawled over him to repay the favor was anything to go by.

Now while normally, Dean would be totally down for this, it ran counter to his current mission. Castiel had sex like he couldn’t help himself, and Dean wanted to change the tone of what they were doing, so he waited until Castiel kissed him next and then chased his lips up, inserting a moment of sweetness where it was hardly appropriate. Cas noticed. He froze, and Dean took advantage of the lack of movement to press his lips back lightly against Castiel’s skin, much gentler this time.

“What are you doing?” Cas asked, sounding distressed. Dean nosed the hollow of his throat and Cas practically jumped to the other side of the sofa.

“Cas?”

“I need to leave,” Cas said, picking up the coat he’d left folded over a chair.

“Look, Cas, maybe we should talk about—“

“Just leave me alone,” Cas hissed after he had stumbled to the door to get his shoes on while not stopping his hasty exit to properly place them on his feet. Dean finally caught onto just how much he had miscalculated and was rushing after Cas before he could flee his apartment.

“Look, Cas, I didn’t mean anything by it. You don’t have to leave. I was just messing around, honest.”

That if anything seemed to make it worse. Nice going Winchester, Dean thought to himself as he saw a frisson of hurt work itself into the panic Castiel was currently experiencing. The door slammed behind the cop, and Dean sank back into the sofa, suddenly feeling very tired. He stared at his phone for a little while before checking the time. Three in the morning. Factoring time zone Mary Winchester would probably be awake.

Recent phone conversations with his mother had been strained at times. She didn’t like Cas, and he knew that. But there wasn’t anyone else Dean felt he could call. So he dialed in the number and waited until he heard his mother’s voice on the other end. After she answered, he assured her it wasn’t an emergency and then worked up his courage to ask his question.

“Mom, I don’t know what to do,” he said. She listened as he explained to her about what was happening with Novak, the old insecurities having Cassie around was digging into him, and the five point plan he had come up with. And she listened because she always had. Not that she’d always agreed with him, or even that he’d always liked what she had to say about what he told her, but because Mary knew the value of listening when other people spoke. When Dean finished she had sighed into the phone.

“Dean you know where I stand on this,” she muttered into the phone. After a few seconds, she seemed to decide that she was going to help him anyway. “Look, he’s probably scared. Space might be the best thing for it. And if not that, you at least need to let him know exactly what it is you’re trying to do. Sam’s right, playing games never works out for anybody involved. If Castiel isn’t ready for a relationship with you, then he isn’t. You can’t trick him into being okay with it.”

“Mom-“

“And I’m not saying this because I don’t like him. I’m saying this because it’s basic human decency to make sure that both people in a relationship are comfortable with it. I hope that I raised you well enough that you see that,” said Mary sternly. It shut Dean up pretty effectively, and her tone softened considerably when she spoke next. “Talk to him, and listen to what he says. That’s all you can do.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Dean muttered into the phone.

“Go to sleep, sweetheart,” Mary said back. “It’s almost always better in the morning.”

*****************

It was not better in the morning.

For one thing, the case had been yanked out from under all of them. It turned out Donna and Alfie’s squatters had been the ones who had rigged up the forging set up, and they’d managed to arrest two people that were staying there, one of which matched the description that Chris had given. The other girl was still unidentified, though Dean had a terrible inclination to who she might be by the expression on Cassie’s face when she saw her, and the way she made sure to stay out of view when the girl was in the room.

Novak had done is absolute best to ignore Dean from the second he stepped into the station and had responded to his good morning with a frosty silence. Charlie clearly knew nothing about what had happened since she looked just as confused as Dean at just how strongly Novak was reacting to having Dean within five feet of him. Sam picked up on it too, of course, though he seemed to have an innate sense of when Dean really, really didn’t want to talk about it, so he was tactfully texting Eileen about it instead probably. Dean would be glad when she came back the next week for a break between her missions and Sam would have to talk about Dean behind his back in front of his face. Or something. Dean hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before.

In any case, Dean was surprised when he had been rebuffed by Cas for what must have been the third time that morning that Cassie had pulled him aside, determination set in her face.

“Okay, I know I haven’t exactly been nice to you, but this is important and I need your help. That girl in there, her name is Connie Robinson. She’s a cousin of mine, and she hasn’t done anything wrong. We need to make sure that she doesn’t go down with that asshole.”

“Cassie-“

“I know that it would be easier not to help me. And I know you might think I don’t deserve your help, but this isn’t about me. She’s eighteen, Dean. Eighteen year olds make mistakes-“

“I’ll help, okay?” Dean cut in. Cassie breathed a sigh of relief.

“They wouldn’t believe me, if I said it,” she said bitterly. “They’d assume I was lying to cover for her.”

“So this is why you decided to pretend at the psychic thing,” Dean muttered, looking toward the cells where he knew Connie was locked up. “Why you started the case six months ago.”

“Well, if ‘you’ could do it…”

“I have this locked down to a science I’ll have you know. And I don’t really appreciate the put downs Cassie. Tell me what the hell I ever did to you. Christ, even when I’m helping you it just doesn’t stop. Am I really so fucking awful you can’t go two seconds without mentioning it?”

Something like shame crossed Cassie’s face for a moment.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she sighed.

“No, you know what? It’s not just now, either. Do you have any idea how much it fucked me up when you called me a freak and then broke up with me? Right after my mom left? What the hell was wrong with you? A simple, let’s just be friends would have been fine.”

“I was sixteen Dean, and you kept talking about how you wanted to run away. What was I supposed to think? I was just trying to end it before you did,” she hissed back.

“What?” Dean asked, a little surprised by both her vehemence and sincerity.

“Come on, Dean. We always wanted different things. I still want to be a reporter when I can get my name back out of the mud. But you, you’re always going to do things like this. Go on little adventures because that’s how you see the world. And I get it, it’s how you get through and that’s fine. Hell, I even loved that about you sometimes. But you were going to hurt me and I couldn’t let that happen.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that?” Dean asked. Cassie shrugged, looking away for a moment, unable to meet his eyes.

“I didn’t really want to feel weak,” she said. “I didn’t want you to have all of the control over what happened about us. I really loved you. It was scary back then.”

“Yeah, well it was scary for me too. And I haven’t really been able to manage it since,” Dean muttered still angry. Cassie’s eyes flitted to Novak so quickly if Dean had blinked he would have missed it. “Oh great, you know about that too. Wonderful. This day keeps getting better and better.”

“I had a good teacher,” Cassie said. “And you two aren’t exactly subtle if you know what to look for.”

“Well, just stay out of it, okay?” Dean said. “Let me take care of getting Connie out of there and then you can do whatever the hell you want.”

Anger, gratitude, and sadness flashed across Cassie’s face in quick succession. She nodded at him tightly and then let him pass by her.

“Thank you for this,” she said after he’d taken a few steps. He didn’t say anything about it.

*******************

Convincing Connie to turn in her boyfriend was not as easy as Dean had hoped it would be. He had managed to get Charlie to believe that she had nothing to do with the actual crimes, but once it had come out that she was Cassie’s cousin, Cassie had been taken off the case just as she suspected she would be. Technically, she could still be charged even if she didn’t participate for aiding and abetting, but Dean was trying to get her to give them information that would keep her out of trouble and Connie was keeping tight lipped about it.

He tried several different methods to get through to her, but Connie was nothing if not loyal to the man who had been identified as Trevor Jones. She refused to say anything that might indict him. What made it even more sad was that Trevor had thrown her under the bus for several crimes Dean was entirely sure he had committed that the police hadn’t yet connected to him. When Dean had told her this had happened, she’d accused him of lying and informed him that she did watch cop shows and knew their tricks.

Castiel and Henrikson and Alfie and Donna had all taken a shot at getting through to her. Nobody seemed to reach her until Nancy sat next to her when she was being transferred from the interrogation room to her cell.

“He’s not worth it,” Nancy told her. Connie violently shrugged away from her, but Nancy kept speaking to her gently. “They’re not lying to you. He doesn’t care about you. Please don’t let this define your life. I know it hurts now, but I promise it will get better.”

“He loves me,” Connie said.

“He really doesn’t,” Nancy replied, placing papers in her hands. “This is word for word.”

Dean knew that what she had given Connie was likely a transcript of one of Victor’s interrogations of Trevor. Connie’s chin wobbled as she read it, and by the time she was finished she was outright sobbing. Nancy kept her company and let her cry into her shoulder while muttering soothing words to her. Dean watched as Connie slowly calmed and then nodded when Nancy spoke with her quietly.

Nancy proceeded to call Henrikson over to speak with Connie again, which he did. Dean made his way over to Nancy.

“That was impressive,” he said sincerely. Nancy shrugged.

“People say a lot of things when they don’t think anyone important is listening,” she said. “I know about you.”

Dean froze and waited for her to say it.

“You know you didn’t need to lie about me about the whole celibacy thing,” she said. Dean relaxed. “I would have given you the transcripts anyway.”

“I… um-“

“I’m not mad, I’m just saying, maybe you should tell the truth more often. Have a little more faith in people,” said Nancy. “They just might surprise you.”

“They almost never do,” said Dean, and that was about as honest as he could get. “But I’ll think it over, Nancy.”

“Alright,” she said with a calm smile. After that, she and Victor left and got ready to fly somewhere else across the country. Cassie had quit her job to take care of her cousin after learning that she would be getting out of this situation in tact. That being the case, though, Cassie still didn’t have a real job.

Or at least that’s what she thought.

Dean may have arranged with Eileen for certain information to come to light about the person she had written an expose about so that Cassie would be vindicated. He figured if she’d gotten one thing right it was that they never wanted the same things, but Dean still wanted Cassie to get the things she wanted, even if she had made a mess of him when he’d been young.

With that all sorted there was just one loose end to tie up.

*****************

Cas didn’t answer when Charlie asked what the hell had happened with Dean. It was easier to ignore her and let her tire herself out than to even begin trying to sort through the conflicting emotions that Dean brought up. So he had instead turned on a Scooby Doo marathon and sat in silence watching it with Jo as Charlie kept trying to bring it up “subtly”. Jo didn’t say anything. She had had an earful the night before and knew that Cas didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

Someone knocked on their door, and Cas stayed where he was while Jo got up to answer the door. The antagonistic tone she took with whoever was there had Cas thinking it was their next door neighbor until he heard an all too familiar voice and sprang from the couch to stalk toward the door.

“I highly doubt he wants to talk to you.”

“Could you just get him Jo?”

“How about I don’t?”

“Jo, it’s fine,” Cas said to her sister, trying to calm her. He tried not to let any sort of emotion show when he turned to address Dean. “What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk?”

“I’d prefer it if we didn’t.”

“Cas, c’mon.”

“Things were fine the way the were. You didn’t have to try to change them-“

“No, they weren’t. A ‘fine’ is something you send me in the mail when you’re annoyed with me. Not the mess of whatever we had going.”

“Very funny,” Castiel muttered. “I think you should leave.”

“Can I just say the one thing I came here to say, Cas?” asked Dean. “Let me do that much.”

Castiel was aware at this point that Jo had backed away from the door, seeming resigned to the fact that Cas would do whatever he wanted with Dean and there wasn’t much she could say about it. Charlie on the other hand had snuck closer and Cas stepped forward and shut the door so that he could have some privacy. He had no doubt she would wheedle whatever happened out of him later, but for now he really didn’t want an audience to whatever Dean was about to say.

“What?”

Dean paused for breath and then started speaking again.

“So think about it like this,” said Dean. “I love living alone.”

“What does this have to do—?”

“Just listen. I like the fact that I don’t have to deal with Sam’s laundry anymore. I love that nobody tells me when I can eat breakfast. I love that after an entire day of doing whatever I have to do I can go home to a place where I can be me and I don’t have to justify myself to anyone else.”

“I assume there’s some sort of punchline to all of this,” said Castiel when Dean paused once again.

“Yeah, there is. The punchline is that despite all that I still like it better when you’re there,” said Dean. “Just so you know.”

Cas practically deflated against his door, letting his head fall into his hands.

“You can’t do this to me.”

“Cas?” Dean said, not wanting to get in his space. Castiel raised his head and dropped his hands which balled into fists at his side.

“I killed a man for you. I constantly let you get in the way of doing my damn job. And being an officer of the law? That’s what I care about most. I can’t—“

“Can’t what?” Castiel tried to turn away, but Dean wasn’t going to let him leave it at that. “Can’t what, Cas? Answer me, god damn it.”

Dean knew in theory he could track the seconds between when he was standing in front of Cas and when he’d been pressed against the opposite wall. Eidetic memories were funny that way. Lucky for him any effort to do so was cut off by Cas kissing him. It took him a few seconds to get his breath back when Cas stopped, his head dropping in some kind of mixture of resignation and shame.

“I like you, Cas,” Dean said. “We do this it isn’t just going to be sex. At least not for me.”

“I don’t just have sex,” Cas muttered beneath his breath. “I don’t wear masks, Dean. I think you know that. You’re the one who’s the mystery.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you’re so good at figuring those out,” said Dean flippantly. He felt the light snuff of a laugh against his neck and suddenly the tension drained from him to a kind of giddiness. Because even if Cas hadn’t said it in so many words, he liked Dean. From Cas’ little confession that he didn’t just have casual sex, Dean got the impression that Cas had liked him all along.

Step four: lay it all on the line.

Not his first choice, but hey it had worked.

******************

“What do you think Dean and Cas are doing right now?” asked Charlie when a loud thud resounded from the hallway.

“Dear God, bleach my brain,” Jo muttered back, pointedly turning up the volume on Scooby Doo.

******************

“Could you at least pretend not to be possessive?” Castiel muttered when his alarm went off the next morning and Dean was practically laying on top of him. A couple of well aimed shoves were enough to free him, and Dean grumbled sleepily for a few seconds before waking up and looking at the clock.

“Dude, you don’t work today,” he pointed out. “It’s like seven a.m.”

“I’m aware,” said Cas.

“Go back to sleep.”

“Trust me I would like nothing better,” said Cas, pulling his belt through his pants and catching a fresh shirt that Dean passed to him. “Unfortunately, I have a meeting with Naomi that I can’t miss if I want to keep my job.”

Dean yawned and sat up in bed. He smiled suddenly and Castiel couldn’t look at him when he did that. It wasn’t fair, the way this man could twist his insides into knots just by smiling. It wasn’t fair how much he wanted to forget his hangups and let whatever was happening happen. Dean started dressing too, and Castiel paused his thoughts to regard him with confusion.

“I’ll give you a ride so you don’t have to pay for a cab,” Dean explained.

“You really don’t have to—“

“Well, we’re a thing now, right?” asked Dean tentatively. Castiel didn’t know how to respond. Dean seemed to shrink the longer he went without answering.

“Yes, I suppose we are,” he admitted at last. Dean muttered something about step five that Cas didn’t understand. He also quite admirably stopped himself from fist pumping. Castiel had a terrible feeling it was a close thing, though.

“Well then, I’ll drive you,” said Dean. “Ever been on a motorcycle before?”

“The cab sounds much more appealing.”

“Spoilsport. You’re lucky Sam left the car here,” Dean said. Cas sighed and followed Dean out to his car before getting into the passenger seat.

The drive to Naomi’s was mostly quiet, though Cas could tell that Dean was humming with nervous energy. He thought about bringing it up, but couldn’t seem to make himself. They were almost at Naomi’s office before Dean spoke up.

“Okay, so I have to tell you something,” Dean said. “In the vein of being entirely honest.”

“Whatever it is, is now really the best time?” Castiel said, not wanting to face his session with Naomi after hearing what he was sure would be something he didn’t want to hear from Dean. Dean nodded seriously and Castiel sat up straighter because for whatever reason Dean wasn’t joking right now and that was reason enough to take notice. “What is it?”

“About… about this whole psychic—“

Dean cut himself off suddenly, seeming to see something and then spun the wheel so that they did an incredibly illegal u-turn. Cas clutched the door and side of his seat and felt vaguely sick.

“What are you…?”

The mirror beside him shattered, and Castiel Novak watched as his own blood splattered across the windshield.

******************

Crowley was rather looking forward to this visit. He had high hopes for the attempt Naomi had promised on Castiel’s life. She had hired Billie, a very skilled assassin, and had ordered her to report to Crowley after her mission. The assassin strolled into the visiting area and sat down across from him, catlike and unreadable. Crowley waited.

“He’s probably still alive,” she said.

“What?”

“I didn’t expect the psychic to be with him,” she said with a shrug. “The shot was off. I didn’t have time to follow them.”

“He’s not actually psychic, Billie.”

“Whether or not he is, he can do something pretty special. I can take another shot at Novak, but it’s going to be hard to get a clean one in the near future.”

Crowley sighed and held out his hand. Billie tossed him a gun and he shot the two guards on either side of him. Blood pooled beneath them when they fell to the floor.

“I suppose there’s something to be said for doing things yourself,” he said, examining the gun. He looked back at Billie. “Keep your salary and help me get out of here?”

“If you’d like,” she said, having already pulled out another weapon. The two made their way out of the prison, and Billie drove him a few miles before Crowley found a car stylish enough for him to steal. After that, he drove right to Santa Barbara in order to get his bearings.

Killing Castiel Novak once and for all was at the top of his to do list, and Crowley was nothing if not efficient.

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all feedback is appreciated! Also, next "episode" will be based off of one of the Despereaux episodes, so there's that to look forward to for all you psych fans out there.


End file.
